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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27392497">we've got flames in our veins</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellawritess/pseuds/bellawritess'>bellawritess</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>5 Seconds of Summer (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>:))))), Band Fic, First Kiss, M/M, Magical Realism, Making Out, Sexual Tension, but like.....only if you want, but on the other hand time is fake and this is fanfiction, don't think too hard about it okay, fuck it, it's about the TENSION everything else is secondary, it's not a streak anymore i just like to see how many fics it fits on, on the one hand it probably takes place in about 2015, so it happens whenever you want it to and nothing is real, the magical realism is up for interpretation</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 20:02:00</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,909</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27392497</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bellawritess/pseuds/bellawritess</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>The electricity is back with a vengeance, crackling over Luke’s skin under the comfortable black of his shirt, sneaking over the nape of his neck, heart pounding from the feeling.</p><p>“For me?” Luke repeats, smirking. “I’m pretty sure that’s for you, Cal.”</p><p>“Well, I should hope so,” Calum says, holding Luke’s gaze, matching his smirk. “That’s what I always want. Girls screaming for me.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Luke Hemmings/Calum Hood</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>46</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>we've got flames in our veins</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidoscopeminds/gifts">kaleidoscopeminds</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>hello !!! this fic is for the endlessly lovely <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaleidoscopeminds">meg</a> for a multitude of reasons. first and foremost it is my due payment to her for not only putting up with but generously inviting my requests for ajr (et al.) gifs. many many of them. meg you are literally the backbone of not only the 5sos fandom but the entire world, dare i say? and this is the least i can do for you. second, (at the time of posting blah blah etc) you currently don't have a blog?? which is criminal i will be suing tumblr imminently but i hope that this makes you smile a little bit at least and distracts you from me sneaking away to go put spiders in the tumblr staff's beds. third: you are of course reigning queen of cake !! and so it is only fitting that this ridiculous silly thrilling fluffy strange little cake thing be yours. and last but surely not least, you are simply a marvelous person whose happiness is of great importance to me.</p><p>all of which to say! that i hope you like this fic, and that it makes you happy for a little while, or even just makes you smile a bit, or anything!!! that is all i ask</p><p>now that that's been established. this doc has been chillin in my drive, about 1/3rd written, since (apparently) september 14. the only thing on the doc for awhile was "(clears throat) ahem" followed by <a href="https://userjimin.tumblr.com/post/128938237814">these gifs</a> (yes i put the gif into my doc i needed the inspiration). meg also made <a href="https://clumsyclifford.tumblr.com/post/630470585205620736/cake-onstage">this highly inspiring gifset</a> (which sadly i can't link to her blog right now but REST ASSURED when it's restored i WILL be updating the link) and together those gifsets gave me the. i don't know. the Vibes to write this. what IS it, you ask? no explanation whatsoever. wouldn't you like to know</p><p>also !!! omg nearly forgot. thank you <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/softirwin/pseuds/softirwin">helen</a> for reading over this and being your usual helpful and vaguely sarcastic self i adore you you know</p><p>anyway i've talked enough so i'll just tell you that the title is from love &amp; drugs by the maine (strongly resisted the urge to name it after electricity from billy elliot) and that's all okay enjoy the fic x</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Apparently, Luke is the only person who thinks about being onstage as akin to being plugged in.</p><p>“You mean like plugging in an amp?” Michael asks, frowning.</p><p>Luke furrows his brows. “No, like. Literally being plugged in. Like if I was a — a charging cord or something, and got plugged into a socket.”</p><p>“If you need to get laid, you can just say that,” Calum says, brushing past Luke on his way to the couch in the dressing room backstage. “Don’t need weird euphemisms.”</p><p>“I don’t need to get laid!” Well, he does a little bit, but that’s not the point. “I’m talking about electricity. You get onstage and it’s electric. You’re telling me it doesn’t feel that way for you?”</p><p>Michael ponders this. Ashton, on his phone on the other side of the room with his feet kicked up onto the vanity table, says, “I would describe it differently. I don’t really get <em> electricity </em>.”</p><p>Michael nods. “Yeah, like…I guess it does make me feel more awake, in a way? Is that what you mean?”</p><p>“No,” Luke says, exasperated. “Like there’s <em> literally </em> electricity all over. I can’t believe I’m the only logical person in this band. Do you guys even like performing?”</p><p>“Shut up,” Calum says, and reaches lazily for Luke, who’s too far out of his reach to grab from his lazy position propped up against the armrest, feet tucked under Michael’s thigh. “Okay, you’re electric. We get it. Come cuddle.”</p><p>“<em>Heeeee’s electric, </em>” Michael sings, smirking.</p><p>Luke huffs and makes a face at them both. “I’m normal. You guys are the weird ones.”</p><p>“You’re all the weird ones,” Ashton says, as Luke surrenders to Calum’s puppy dog eyes and allows himself to be pulled sloppily onto Calum’s lap. “Have any of you ever heard of personal space?”</p><p>“Heard of it,” Calum declares, cheek smushed against Luke’s back. “Tried it. Decided it wasn’t for us.”</p><p>Ashton snorts, rolls his eyes, and then pulls up his camera to take a picture of the three of them. Michael sticks his tongue out. Luke flips him off. Calum wraps his arms tightly around Luke’s middle. Ashton grins.</p><p>“New background,” he says.</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>The thing is, there’s no way it’s just Luke. It can’t be. </p><p>The show is really wild, and this crowd, like every crowd, is somehow louder than the last one was, and everyone plays the right things for the most part (except Luke, who misses a couple notes, but he’s always grateful for the screaming of the fans that generally covers fuck-ups like that). During Michael’s talking break, Luke wanders across the stage to Calum’s side, grinning broadly. Calum’s grin mirrors his, would be mocking if Calum didn’t love Luke so much. Luke moves closer.</p><p>“You’re doing great,” Calum says, in a tone of voice that means he will definitely be making fun of Luke later for the notes he’d missed. Luke doesn’t even care. Calum has missed a couple too. They always do.</p><p>“Yeah, you think so?” </p><p>“Oh yeah. Look, all the girls are screaming for you.”</p><p>The electricity is back with a vengeance, crackling over Luke’s skin under the comfortable black of his shirt, sneaking over the nape of his neck, heart pounding from the feeling.</p><p>“For me?” Luke repeats, smirking. “I’m pretty sure that’s for you, Cal.”</p><p>“Well, I should hope so,” Calum says, holding Luke’s gaze, matching his smirk. “That’s what I always want. Girls screaming for me.”</p><p>“Really? You seem unimpressed.”</p><p>“Well, they could be louder.”</p><p>Luke laughs. “I’m not sure they could.”</p><p>“I bet they could.”</p><p>“I can’t think how.”</p><p>Calum’s smile is wide and mischievous. He reaches out and pats Luke on the cheek, then leans in close to whisper in Luke’s ear.</p><p>“No imagination, Lucas,” he murmurs, sending a violent shock all through Luke, something that sizzles at his fingertips and makes his hands, for a second, tremble. Calum brushes his lips against Luke’s cheek, one hand still holding his face. Sure enough, the crowd, mindless of Michael introducing their next song, shrieks, and the sound fills the space, threatens to drown them all. Luke’s not sure if his heart is still beating in his chest or if it’s just echoing the rhythm they put into their music, but if it’s the latter that would make sense, because they’re not playing right now, and neither is Luke positive his heart’s still beating. He wonders if figurative electricity can stop a heart.</p><p>
  <span>“Clearly,” Luke answers, as Calum pulls back, grin still sly and falsely innocent. He looks unaffected, unless Luke’s not imagining the hint of uncertainty over his expression. With the lights in their faces, it’s always hard to tell. “Are you impressed now?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Calum just shakes his head, like he’s laughing at Luke a little bit. The flash of ambivalence has gone, leaving Luke almost certain he’d made it up. “Maybe. Let’s see how the rest of the show goes.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He leans back and returns to his spot at his mic, not turning his back until absolutely necessary, and Luke traipses back to his own mic, feeling more electric right now than ever before in his life, and desperate to learn if Calum is feeling the same.</span>
</p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Calum has just changed out of his sweaty show shirt when Luke finds him.</p><p>“Hey,” Luke says, because he has to say something normal before going, <em> so, before. About that thing onstage. What was that about? </em></p><p>Calum turns, adjusting his shirt on his shoulders. “Oh, hey,” he says. “That was insane, huh?”</p><p>“It’s always insane. You always say that.”</p><p>“Because it always is. If I don’t say it, then you’ll know it wasn’t.”</p><p>Luke snorts. “Okay. Sure.”</p><p>He shifts on his feet in the doorway, wanting to come in but feeling bizarrely uncertain about it. Calum looks strangely at him. “You okay?”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah,” Luke says nonchalantly. “Just, you know. Yeah, I’m okay.”</p><p>“Just what?” Leave it to Calum to push.</p><p>“Thinking about the show,” Luke says, swallowing. “And the conversation from before the show. I don’t know, I was just wondering if — if you felt…differently about it now.” </p><p>The tilt of Calum’s head gives him a labradorian look. “What conversation do you mean?”</p><p>“Where I said being onstage felt like being plugged in. And you guys all made fun of me.”</p><p>“Oh,” Calum says, and then, more softly: “<em> Oh. </em>” And: “Why would I feel differently?”</p><p>Yeah, why <em> would </em> he? Why should Calum feel it just because Luke does? Just because it had been so glaringly obvious, so palpable that it had nearly threatened Luke’s heartbeat, that doesn’t mean Calum would be in the same position. In the end, it’s not <em> real </em> electricity. It’s just Luke’s overactive imagination.</p><p>But he <em> had </em> felt something furiously alive between the two of them, and when Calum had leaned in to whisper in Luke’s ear — there’s no way to account for that. That feeling has been building up since it happened, and now Luke’s got all this extra energy and nothing to do with it. </p><p>Calum approaches, slowly, smoothly. “Luke?” he repeats, stepping closer and closer while Luke stands frozen in place just inside the doorway. “Why would I feel differently?”</p><p>“I — I just thought you might,” Luke mumbles, <em> because how is it possible that I felt it so much and you didn’t feel it at all? </em></p><p>“Do you?” Calum asks, too close now. Luke could reach out and touch him, but he won’t. He knows it’ll send a shock through his system and he doesn’t want Calum to see that.</p><p>“Um — what? Do I what?”</p><p>“Feel differently.”</p><p>“About?”</p><p>“Anything.”</p><p>“I’m always feeling things,” Luke says weakly. “You’ll have to be more specific.”</p><p>“About me,” Calum says analytically.</p><p>“Do you?”</p><p>“I asked you first.”</p><p>“Technically I asked you first, actually.”</p><p>“Why are you so tense?” Calum asks instead, scanning Luke’s body, studying his face. Luke feels himself grow even more tense.</p><p>“I’m not. Are you just going to keep —”</p><p>“You so are.” Calum moves before Luke can, curling a hand over Luke’s shoulder, and Luke jerks as the voltage spikes where they connect. “Touchy.”</p><p>“Stop— stop it, Calum, I just wanted to know if —”</p><p>“Yeah, I get it now,” Calum says quietly. “Electric. It felt electric to me.”</p><p>Luke feels himself exhale, although where the air is coming from he’s not sure, because he’s pretty sure he hasn’t breathed for about a minute now. “Me too,” he says, and Calum’s fingers curl into the collar of Luke’s shirt and Luke doesn’t have a moment to breathe before Calum kisses him.</p><p>It’s a surge of energy, a shower of sparks; the kiss feels like jump-starting a car would, if you grabbed the jumper cables. Luke grabs Calum’s face instead, already out of air but too attached to break away and inhale, so he gasps instead with his mouth against Calum’s. His body’s flooded with static electricity, and everywhere he touches Calum makes him shiver, but he can’t or won’t stop; it feels good, with his palm splayed over the small of Calum’s back, keeping him solidly in place, within kissing range.</p><p>Cautiously, Calum presses forward, and Luke retreats until his back bumps up against the wall. One of Calum’s hands flattens itself against the wall beside Luke’s head, and the other hooks itself in the belt loop of Luke’s jeans. Luke thinks he might be literally on fire.</p><p>The kiss turns slow; Calum keeps biting gently at Luke’s bottom lip, and Luke is happy to just stand there and let him. There’s a hum under his skin, but it feels more like a resolved hum than the crackling tension from before. <em> This </em> is what he’d been waiting for, what he’d been feeling the whole time. Maybe they should have kissed a long time ago.</p><p>(Every spin the bottle game they’ve ever played counters, <em> you have, </em> but Luke thinks, <em> not like this. Never like this before. </em>)</p><p>After what might be forever, Calum pulls away. Luke is sure if he moves away from the wall his legs will give out, so he stays where he is and catches his breath. Calum’s left arm is still bracketing Luke, right hand still curled into his belt loop, and Luke can feel how near he is. This is maybe worse than contact; like holding a shirt fresh out of the dryer over his arm, having Calum so close is drawing all the static to the surface of Luke’s skin.</p><p>“Was that okay?” Calum asks. For the first time since the show ending, he sounds nervous. “It felt like the right thing to do.”</p><p>“It was,” Luke says, giving him a shaky smile. “It definitely was.”</p><p>Calum looks at him, relieved. There’s hardly any space between them at all. If someone accidentally nudged Calum, they’d be kissing again. Luke does a cursory self-assessment. With the taste of Calum on his tongue, and him so close, the electricity is prowling across his skin, waiting, probably, to be kissed again, to have Calum’s hands on him. It’s hard to tell if Calum had made the feeling worse or better. Kissing him had momentarily settled the unrest, but now it’s back with a vengeance.</p><p>“I didn’t get what you meant before,” Calum says, “and I didn’t get it until — you know. Onstage. With you.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Luke breathes. </p><p>“It was weird,” Calum adds. “When you were talking about it, did you mean that’s how you feel all the time?”</p><p>“Mainly onstage.” <em> And right now. </em> “Yeah. It’s not bad, just…yeah. Weird.”</p><p>Calum flickers his gaze around Luke’s face. “What about now?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Luke says, finding no reason to lie. “It’s still there.”</p><p>“But we’re not onstage.”</p><p>It might be bravery, but it’s probably desperation that makes Luke say, “Maybe it’s from something else, then.”</p><p>Calum’s hand travels higher until his fingers graze the skin under Luke’s shirt, over his hip. It sends a jolt of energy all the way through him, and Luke almost chokes on his own breath. “Something else?”</p><p>“Come on,” Luke says, trying not to whine. “Don’t tease.”</p><p>Calum’s mouth curves upward in a smirk just moments before he leans too close for Luke to see, and by then they’re kissing again and Luke figures he can sacrifice the view. The restless current buzzing over his limbs pools under Calum’s fingertips, a flare localizing itself on the plane of Luke’s waist, over the racing pulse in his neck, where Calum’s hand comes up to cradle Luke’s face. It feels like he’s being struck by lightning, and distantly he knows that’s not normal. Nothing has ever, ever, ever felt like kissing Calum does, like something is igniting him from his very core, setting every atom ablaze. It’s not supposed to feel like catching fire, Luke is pretty sure. </p><p>The grip on Luke’s face tightens as Calum crowds in, opening his mouth to Luke’s, breathing something that sounds like Luke’s name, followed by, “Holy shit,” and Luke clutches the collar of Calum’s shirt to pull him closer, always closer. He’s absolutely certain nobody’s ever kissed him like this before, and relatively confident nobody ever will again. If this is the only time it happens, Luke is going to take fucking advantage.</p><p>“Do you,” he starts, and halfway through realizes he probably shouldn’t ask, but it’s too late to take it back. Almost in tandem Calum moves to mouth at Luke’s neck, under the curve of his jaw, as Luke tilts his head the other way until it hits the wall behind him. It leaves him free to talk, though, which had probably been Calum’s intention, although talking is difficult when Calum’s almost biting his neck. “Do you still feel — <em> fuck</em>, Calum. <em> Cal. </em>”</p><p>Calum barely pauses, his breath hot on Luke’s skin. “Do I feel what?”</p><p>“The — electricity,” Luke groans, bottom lip between his teeth like it’s doing him any favors. Everywhere Calum’s touching feels like glass shattering, something not-quite-painful scratching the surface under Calum’s hands. It’s on the verge of too much. Luke’s not sure if he can take it much longer, though he’s equally unsure if he could ever muster up the strength to push Calum away. He can’t imagine ever wanting to.</p><p>One of Calum’s arms snakes around Luke’s waist; the other hand threads itself into Luke’s hair and lightly tugs, eliciting an involuntary moan from Luke. Lips still pressed against Luke’s neck, Calum murmurs, “So fucking much,” then licks the place where he’s no doubt left a mark. Luke thinks he’s going to melt, or else burst into actual flames.</p><p>He wants to say<em> really?  </em>but continuing this conversation suddenly feels like the least important thing in the world, and taking the top priority spot is keeping Calum touching him, everywhere, all the time, forever. “Oh,” he says hoarsely, pulling at Calum’s shirtfront. “Good.”</p><p>Calum draws back just long enough for Luke to see how utterly debauched he looks, to imagine how completely undone Luke himself must look, and then he reconnects their lips before Calum can say anything more.</p><p>They should stop, probably. Distantly Luke knows they should probably stop. It’s incredible that nobody’s walked in on them, but this is pushing their luck, and even in a best-case scenario where the person who walks in doesn’t care that they’re two blokes and bandmates and best friends making out, they still have a hotel to get back to, two other members of their band to locate, instruments to carefully store. They don’t really have the time for Calum to sneak his hand up under Luke’s shirt and dig his nails into the arch of Luke’s back, for Calum to seize Luke by the hair and twist enough to make Luke want to fall to his knees and beg.</p><p>They really don’t have the time, but Luke is not known for his willpower.</p><p>Fortunately, Calum has at least heard of discipline, once upon a time. “Oh my fucking God, Luke, we have to — stop, we have to stop.” He’s breathing raggedly and still close enough to chase, and Luke is dizzy with relief. This is the first moment that he hasn’t felt his skin crawling with a vibrating static since going onstage; it’s the best he’s felt in ages about it at all. If kissing Calum is the remedy, Luke is quickly growing addicted. </p><p>“We don’t have to.”</p><p>“We have to stop right now,” Calum rectifies, although he doesn’t move. It’s not really fair of him to say that when his hand is still halfway up the back of Luke’s shirt, flattened against the small of his back. Luke tries to summon his reasonable self. It takes every ounce of self-control not to kiss Calum again, so he compromises by gazing at Calum instead, drinking in every color of his face. Flushed cheeks, kiss-red lips, deep brown eyes dark with something enticing, inky black eyelashes that flutter as Calum blinks.</p><p>Luke swallows hard. “Right now?” </p><p>“We can pick this up later,” Calum says, in a tone that suggests he absolutely intends to pick this up later, and that Luke can count on him doing so as long as they stop for now.</p><p>It’s a stupid question, because the last five-ish minutes basically answer it, but Luke asks anyway. “You want to pick this up later?”</p><p>Calum stares at him. “Of fucking course I do.” As if it doesn’t even occur to him for a second that Luke might not want to.</p><p>(Not that Luke could ever possibly convince Calum of that. He couldn’t even convince himself, not after that devastating show of complete submission minutes prior.)</p><p>“Fine,” Luke says. He swallows again, though he’s not sure why. “Later. Good idea.”</p><p>Calum’s lips quirk upward. It’s unfairly charming. Luke wants to kiss him so bad. “Jesus, Luke,” he says under his breath, shaking his head, which is <em> really </em> not fair now that he’s decided they can’t be making out anymore. “Jesus Christ.”</p><p>“Stop it,” Luke says. “If you’re not going to kiss me you need to take several steps back.”</p><p>Calum breathes a laugh. His fingertips skim down Luke’s spine and Luke shivers, eyes falling helplessly shut. “I get it, though.” Mercifully (or tragically), he finally steps back, severing the connection between the two of them. Luke waits for the return of the electric hum, but it doesn’t come. “Like, holy fuck, I get what you were saying.”</p><p>Luke exhales. “See, I’m not crazy.”</p><p>“Or I’m also crazy.”</p><p>“Well, you’re definitely crazy. You kissed me.”</p><p>“That’s true. That does make me insane.”</p><p>“Hey!”</p><p>Calum laughs. Luke misses the feeling of burning up under his touch. “Well, you kissed me, too.”</p><p>“Yeah, but you’re hot.” </p><p>There’s a beat. Luke opens his eyes. A hint of pink shows on Calum’s cheeks. “Don’t say that,” he says, though he seems pleased. “I’ve just been a dick to you.”</p><p>“Well you should have thought of that before you were a dick to me.”</p><p>“If you’d just be a dick to<em> me </em> then we’d be even.”</p><p>“Sure,” says Luke, possessed by some bizarre concoction of courage, bluntness, and a total lack of self-consciousness. “You <em> are </em> hot, though. I’m not going to pretend you’re not. I don’t think either of us would believe me at this point, anyway.”</p><p>Calum keeps a steady gaze trained on Luke. “I like this version of you,” he says. </p><p>Luke raises his eyebrows. “You like the version of me that calls you hot?”</p><p>“Well. Yes.” Calum blushes. “I meant your confidence, but you know. Same thing.”</p><p>Having it acknowledged makes Luke feel more trapped in it, and he realizes now how uncharacteristically forthright he’s been. “Don’t get excited,” he says, biting his lip. “It won’t last.”</p><p>“That’s fine,” Calum says, rocking on his heels. Luke gets the impression that he’s resisting reaching out, if only because Luke is doing exactly the same thing. Calum does stretch his hands out, but only halfway, contemplating the backs of his hands as if they’re strangers to him. “Hey. It’s gone.”</p><p>“What is?”</p><p>Calum wriggles his fingers and then prods at Luke’s shoulder. “The…whatever it was. Electricity.”</p><p>Luke takes stock of himself and finds it’s gone from him, too. They’ve not been touching, but the feeling hasn’t returned, and Luke feels suspiciously…normal.  “Huh,” he says, frowning. It’s not a bad thing, or at least it shouldn’t be. It hadn’t been annoying, per se, but Luke should be glad to be rid of it, because it’s one less thing to be worrying about, thinking about onstage. There’s no promise, of course, that it won’t come back for the next show, but somehow Luke is sure it won’t. </p><p>Calum’s fixed it. Luke should be happier about that.</p><p>“It might come back,” he offers, unconvincingly.</p><p>Calum wrinkles his nose. “Doubt it. I’ve never felt that before. I don’t think I will again.”</p><p>Luke sighs. “Alright, that’s sorted, then.”</p><p>“What’s sorted?”</p><p>Luke shrugs. “Whatever needed sorting. You’re feeling better.”</p><p>“I had nothing to feel better from. I wasn’t feeling bad.” Calum flips his palms, back and forth and back and forth, as if taunting Luke with something he can’t have. “Was exciting, though. I wonder what it means.”</p><p>“It means we’re both crazy.”</p><p>“Maybe it means we’re soulmates.” Calum waggles his eyebrows and sticks his tongue out. It’s hard to believe only a minute before had found this man-child with his hand up Luke’s shirt. “Or that we’re magical.”</p><p>Luke laughs despite himself. “I don’t think it means those things.”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Calum says, shifting on his feet, forward backwards. “Felt pretty magical to me.”</p><p>Luke grimaces. “That was disgusting.”</p><p>“I’m trying to be cute!”</p><p>“It’s not working. Stop trying.”</p><p>“Is that all I am to you? A hot guy?” Calum drapes his wrist dramatically over his forehead, eyes already crinkling in a laugh.</p><p>Luke sidesteps around Calum, shaking his head. “Come on, you cunt, we have places to be.”</p><p>Calum immediately falls into step with him, linking their arms. Luke expects a jolt of lightning, but all he gets is a pleasant flickering sensation in his chest, a skip in the rhythm of his heart. It feels different, though in a lot of ways the same. Similar enough, anyway, that he thinks it bears asking. “Did you feel that?”</p><p>A quick glance at Calum as they leave the room shows Calum thinking hard to himself. “Yes and no,” he finally says, and turns his gaze onto Luke. The corners in his mouths quirk upward, softening his smile and his eyes. “I don’t think that was the same.”</p><p>Luke doesn’t think it was, either, but it’s reassuring the Calum felt it too. He returns Calum’s smile and tucks his head onto Calum’s shoulder briefly as they walk. “You’ll tell Mike and Ashton that I’m not crazy, right?”</p><p>Calum tilts his head against Luke’s, and Luke feels warm. “Of course I won’t. You<em> are </em>crazy. You’ve got butterflies for me.”</p><p>Butterflies. That’s what they are. Luke smiles. “Well then you’re also crazy, since you said you felt it too.”</p><p>“We’re both crazy,” Calum hums. As Luke straightens up, Calum leans in, unbalancing himself to press a kiss to Luke’s cheek. “Sometimes it’s worth it to be crazy, you know?”</p><p>The kiss lingers after Calum moves away, simmering on Luke’s skin like the cooling embers of a once-roaring fire. They’re the kind of embers, Luke knows, that they’ll fan for a long time. The fire’s not dying; Calum’s breathed life into this, into them, and Luke can’t wait to see how long it burns.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>thank you for joining me on this super bizarre fic adventure :)) i'm on tumblr <a href="http://clumsyclifford.tumblr.com/">@clumsyclifford</a> always up for a chat so feel free to stop by and say hey!! that's all love you guys all a lot bye &lt;3</p></blockquote></div></div>
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